ECOLOGICAL. ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY. SUSTAINABLE.
Sustainable construction & building certification
Sustainable building means that in the planning, building construction and utilization phase of a building the focus is on the protection of environment and resources and the benefit for people and society. However, economic potentials shall also be utilised with sustainable building.
So-called building certification systems implement the principles of sustained building in a total concept and assess the eco logical, social and economical quality of buildings quantitatively. National building certification systems are meanwhile in place in almost all countries of the globe. In Germany the assessment system of the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB) as well as the American LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) system – which is spreading also in many other countries – have become widely accepted. The British building certification system BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is sometimes also used in Germany.
In general, very many different criteria are thus established for buildings. In DGNM System, the building must meet requirements, amongst others, on life cycle costs, area utilisation, accessibility, sound insulation and consumption of resources, to mention only a few examples. The more criteria are complied with, the better the total score of the building and the better the claims of the building, e. g. with DGNB Gold, Silver or Platinum.
Especially the building products used contribute at a relevant degree to the assessment of the structure. The choice of product is therefore very important, but not always easy. Processors or manufacturers are often required here to provide respective proof. With installation materials, interior emission is primarily important for building certification:
DGNB-System
With the DGNB System installation materials should best meet EMICODE EC 1 PLUS of the Blue Angel to allow their use in DGNB building projects. In addition, there are requirements on GISCODEs and partially additional product group-specific criteria. The DGNB System furthermore classifies the degree of compliance of a product into so-called quality levels (QS), where QS 4 is the highest and QS 1 to lowest quality level.
LEED-SYSTEM
In the LEED System requirements on the VOC content (attention, US definition) have so far been a qualifying criterion in LEED projects; emission testing has been added quite recently in the latest version of the LEED System. In addition, with LEED the distance from the factory to the mining site of the raw materials and portion of secondary raw materials in the product are sometimes queried.
BREEAM
BREEAM is a worldwide leading assessment procedure for the sustainability evaluation of projects, infrastructures and buildings. It records and reflects the value of the built environment over the entire life cycle - from new construction to refurbishment. Certification is implemented by assessing the environmental, social and economic sustainability performance of an asset in accordance with the standards developed by BRE. BREEAM-awarded projects are therefore sustainable environments that improve the well-being of the people who live and work in them, while at the same time helping to protect sustainable resources.
To be able to see at a glance whether codex products may be used in respective projects corresponding notes are continuously added to all codex product data sheets.
